What boat would you buy to circumnavigate the UK and beyond, with only £5k?

[srm]

And indeed Out Stack, north of Muckle Flugga

Waiting to snag the unwary.

As an aside, way back in the mid 70's a wave monitoring buoy went adrift from the edge of the continental shelf west of Foula. I was sort of unofficial agent in Shetland for the organisation running it having been employed by them before going freelance. The Muckle Flugga light was manned at the time and I relayed a message through the shore station on Unst to ask the lighthouse keepers to watch for it. They did not see it and eventually it washed up a mile or so south of Nord Kapp, Norway.

 

[Concerto]

bpbpbp, I have to ask what your sailing experience really is. In 2022 I sailed round Britain singlehanded via Out Stack. I bought my Westerly Fulmar in Dec 2013 and it took me a long time to prepare her. However my sailing experience started in 1965 and in the late 1960's through into the 1980's I did a lot of offshore racing. Even with all my experience I can honestly say your budget is far too low to buy a boat that will be ready for a trip like mine. If you look at the link in my signature you will find my videos of the trip along with the forum posts I made every day after sailing. Yes I can certainly say it can be a series of day sails, some of which can be very long distances. Personally I have the stamina and ability to do long sails of 12 to 16 hours, but in a much faster boat than you are suggesting. After every long sail I took several days off to recouperate. Then as you sail round the coast, you will always need to enter a harbour at sometime for supplies, diesel, repairs or trips home. These can be much more expensive that you might expect. It cost me £3,300 (excluding food) as I stayed in lots of harbours rather than anchoring. This link is a brief summary of my trip along with the costings. Round Britain summary of the trip including costings

My advice is get a lot more sailing experience, preferably on other peoples boats, to help you build increase your sailing skills. This will help you decide what you want from a boat and assist in building your funds to buy a much better boat. I have to say I am known as a PBO, which stands for poor bloody owner.

My reply might not be what you are looking for, but it comes from years of sailing experience.

 

[srm]

I am at the end of almost 50 years continuous yacht ownership. While agreeing with Concerto based on that experience I think it only fair to make a counter argument.
In late 1974 I bought my first cruising boat, a 26ft, professionally built, plywood catamaran. We launched it at the head of Portsmouth harbour the following Easter. The planned shake down in the Solent had to be skipped as the yard delayed the launch by a couple of weeks. Three of us sailed her to Shetland via the North Sea as we had to be back at work there. I had sailed before, a total of four or five weeks as crew on larger cruising boats, plus dinghy sailing at school. That was my first experience as skipper. I also had a fair bit of experience of both inshore and offshore work as a hydrographic surveyor.

 

[bpbpbp]

bpbpbp, I have to ask what your sailing experience really is. In 2022 I sailed round Britain singlehanded via Out Stack. I bought my Westerly Fulmar in Dec 2013 and it took me a long time to prepare her. However my sailing experience started in 1965 and in the late 1960's through into the 1980's I did a lot of offshore racing. Even with all my experience I can honestly say your budget is far too low to buy a boat that will be ready for a trip like mine. If you look at the link in my signature you will find my videos of the trip along with the forum posts I made every day after sailing. Yes I can certainly say it can be a series of day sails, some of which can be very long distances. Personally I have the stamina and ability to do long sails of 12 to 16 hours, but in a much faster boat than you are suggesting. After every long sail I took several days off to recouperate. Then as you sail round the coast, you will always need to enter a harbour at sometime for supplies, diesel, repairs or trips home. These can be much more expensive that you might expect. It cost me £3,300 (excluding food) as I stayed in lots of harbours rather than anchoring. This link is a brief summary of my trip along with the costings. Round Britain summary of the trip including costings

My advice is get a lot more sailing experience, preferably on other peoples boats, to help you build increase your sailing skills. This will help you decide what you want from a boat and assist in building your funds to buy a much better boat. I have to say I am known as a PBO, which stands for poor bloody owner.

My reply might not be what you are looking for, but it comes from years of sailing experience.

Thanks, that's great - especially with the costings.
There are of course many many videos of people all over YT having circumnavigated in cheap boats and with minimal experience.
But my plan is to do as you say and spend a year sailing locally and buildin up longer trips, making essential upgrades, and then hopefully going for it.

 

[[194497]]

If the budget was genuinely limited to £5k, there's a Hurley 22 on Apollo Duck for £4250 that's been set up for single handed offshore sailing, and which circumnavigated the UK last year. I don't know the boat but that's exactly the kind of thing I'd be looking for.

 

[steveeasy]

There is of course nothing wrong in setting off to go round Britain and say getting half way round. That in it self is a massive achievement. Have your own goals and dont worry what another person does. Personally Ive never ever considered or wanted to sail round Britain. id like to sail to Faroe Islands, St Kilda. Perhaps Denmark, But any of those would be personal achievements. work and other commitments are the limiting factors. Do what you can when you can,

Steveeasy

 

[[193211]]

Why not just pick a nice cruising ground and tick off every island/ anchorage/ harbour instead? You’d be a long time at that on the West Coast of Scotland.

“Round GB” in a £5k boat is pretty hair shirt. YouTube: Sam Sails. He did it in a Hurley 22. He’s now got a Nic32…

Think about total cost of ownership. Buying it is the cheap bit.

 

[E39mad]

A Trapper 28 aka T400 is a very good sailing boat and usually within budget. One with a recent engine and sails obviously a massive bonus.

 

[bpbpbp]

If the budget was genuinely limited to £5k, there's a Hurley 22 on Apollo Duck for £4250 that's been set up for single handed offshore sailing, and which circumnavigated the UK last year. I don't know the boat but that's exactly the kind of thing I'd be looking for.

There’s an Anderson 22 too but both would be a real squeeze for me at 6’3. Still an option though, I’ll try and find local ones to view.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

There’s an Anderson 22 too but both would be a real squeeze for me at 6’3. Still an option though, I’ll try and find local ones to view.

As Concerto says you are going to find it tough going with any of the boats you mention plus your limited experience and the boats likely problems that will gradually unfold at the most inopportune times. That is not to say it can't be done, it has but....... The boats in question will be excellent for you to gain experience both in terms of maintenance, expenditure, what is essential or desirable and most importantly sailing and water craft for a couple of years after which you will be in a far better position to evaluate your requirements and abilities.

 

[Tranona]

There’s an Anderson 22 too but both would be a real squeeze for me at 6’3. Still an option though, I’ll try and find local ones to view.

The Anderson 22 is the very opposite of the old full keel type with its flat underbody and deep drop keel plus transom hung spade rudder. However when it was first designed one successfully crossed the Atlantic and back.

 

[Ammonite]

Has anyone suggested the good old centaur yet? I saw what looked quite a decent one for sale recently for 7k, recent beta engine and it looked ok below. Easy to sell on later I guess.

I've only scanned the listing but at first glance list one looks good value at £5k. Lots of recent kit
Westerly Centaur for sale UK, Westerly boats for sale, Westerly used boat sales, Westerly Sailing Yachts For Sale Westerly Centaur - Apollo Duck

 

[srm]

Personally Ive never ever considered or wanted to sail round Britain. id like to sail to Faroe Islands, St Kilda. Perhaps Denmark, But any of those would be personal achievements. work and other commitments are the limiting factors. Do what you can when you can,

I agree, though if I aggregate my UK passage making then I have been around all of Britain except for the Channel between IOW and Torbay. Having been up and down the channel on survey vessels I don't think I have missed anything significant regarding sailing experience. Sailing around the St Kilda stacks and a fund raising passage for Aith Lifeboat around the north of Shetland were far more interesting.

Denmark is doable from the UK with only two overnight passages. Day sail up to Shetland via Fair Isle, an overnight passage to Norway (180nm Lerwick to an outer island anchorage), day sail south round the Norwegian coast to near Kristiansand, then about 95nm across the Skagerak to Skagen at the north tip of Denmark. Easy; all you need is a summer with no other commitments. However, Danish waters are shallow, I would have preferred less than our 1.8 m draught.

I never made it to Faroe, but did meet two young Swedish lads in Orkney. They were on their way back home from the Faroes in a Contessa 26 that did not have an engine. The engine bay was used to stow light weather sails.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I agree, though if I aggregate my UK passage making then I have been around all of Britain except for the Channel between IOW and Torbay. Having been up and down the channel on survey vessels I don't think I have missed anything significant regarding sailing experience. Sailing around the St Kilda stacks and a fund raising passage for Aith Lifeboat around the north of Shetland were far more interesting.

Denmark is doable from the UK with only two overnight passages. Day sail up to Shetland via Fair Isle, an overnight passage to Norway (180nm Lerwick to an outer island anchorage), day sail south round the Norwegian coast to near Kristiansand, then about 95nm across the Skagerak to Skagen at the north tip of Denmark. Easy; all you need is a summer with no other commitments. However, Danish waters are shallow, I would have preferred less than our 1.8 m draught.

I never made it to Faroe, but did meet two young Swedish lads in Orkney. They were on their way back home from the Faroes in a Contessa 26 that did not have an engine. The engine bay was used to stow light weather sails.

Me too, I missed out the boring NE coast by going up the Norwegian coast then crossing to Shetland and then the Faroes on a trip did St Kilda on another trip and down the West coast of Ireland and direct to Scillies thereby missing the uninteresting Welsh coastline and problematic NW Cornish one.

 

[capnsensible]

I reckon that as always with these kind of threads, there are people queuing up to give a list of reasons to not do something adventurous....

A 5k boat is gonna be simple. Easy to keep it that way. Doesn't need a lot of extra money spent and fixing small defects are easy. A nice cruise should be a fun thing to do, not a worry pit.

In my opinion, of course.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I reckon that as always with these kind of threads, there are people queuing up to give a list of reasons to not do something adventurous....

A 5k boat is gonna be simple. Easy to keep it that way. Doesn't need a lot of extra money spent and fixing small defects are easy. A nice cruise should be a fun thing to do, not a worry pit.

In my opinion, of course.

So being a Yachtmaster instructor you would recommend an inexperienced person with no boat experience to purchase a sub £5K yacht and set sail around the UK presumably taking in some very interesting if not challenging Northern waters. Hmmm.

 

[srm]

So being a Yachtmaster instructor you would recommend an inexperienced person with no boat experience to purchase a sub £5K yacht and set sail around the UK presumably taking in some very interesting if not challenging Northern waters. Hmmm.

Well that's pretty well what I did long before becoming a YM Instructor, (see post#43) though 3K in 1974 will equate to more than 5K now, but it was the cheapest boat in reasonable condition that I could find at the time that had the potential to live on.

 

[srm]

I remember being inspired as a student by an article in YM. A guy built a boat using materials salvaged from demolition sites. It had a simple dory type hull plus keel and junk rig. He then sailed it across the Atlantic. I think the boat was called "Eric the Red". Anyway, from the info in the article I built a model of it.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I remember being inspired as a student by an article in YM. A guy built a boat using materials salvaged from demolition sites. It had a simple dory type hull plus keel and junk rig. He then sailed it across the Atlantic. I think the boat was called "Eric the Red". Anyway, from the info in the article I built a model of it.

There are some that do all sorts of things or have done and there are a lot than come to grief or give up at various stages of their endeavours. The only real problems nowadays would be the journey around Shetland and if done the St Kilda but perfectly possible I agree but you need a definite degree of motivation and adventure to do it.

 

[capnsensible]

So being a Yachtmaster instructor you would recommend an inexperienced person with no boat experience to purchase a sub £5K yacht and set sail around the UK presumably taking in some very interesting if not challenging Northern waters. Hmmm.

Where did you get that from? no need to rush and equally no need to flap.